A husband denied being the driver of a stolen van which nearly killed his wife in a hit-and-run, a court was told.

Civil servant Martin Hewlett, 45, was arrested the day after the near-fatal accident which left his wife, Anne, with devastating injuries and confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life.

But he told police he was not behind the wheel of the sandwich delivery van, which was stolen two days earlier.

Hewlett is on trial at Hove Crown Court accused of attempted murder.

The court has heard his wife, Anne Dreisler, 36, a nurse at Worthing Hospital, was knocked off her bike as she cycled home on the evening of February 29 last year.

Hewlett was arrested at the family home in Guildford Road the day after the accident.

Detective Constable David Dell told the court Hewlett denied driving the van when he was questioned by police.

He declined to answer any other questions at the interview or when he was arrested and charged five months later.

The court heard Hewlett, who worked at the Job Centre in Durrington, has no previous convictions for criminal offences.

He is accused of plotting to kill his wife, the mother of his two teenage children, by running her over in the stolen transit van to cash in her life insurance policy of £125,000.

Hewlett is alleged to have planned the hit-and-run after his wife demanded a divorce when she discovered he had run up gambling debts of more than £100,000 and secretly re-mortgaged their home.

The court has heard the divorce was due to be finalised four days after the accident.

During the trial Ms Dreisler told the court she did not see who was driving the van when it deliberately knocked her down in Canterbury Road, before turning around and driving back over her injured body, dragging her down the street for 30 feet.

She broke down in tears as she recalled seeing a "happy face, a monkey face with crazy black hair."

Hewlett denies attempted murder.

The trial continues.